Broly: The Good, the Bad, and the Super (Spoiler-Filled Review)

On March 6, 1993, Dragon Ball Z: Broly -- The Legendary Super Saiyan was released, forever changing the face of the Dragon Ball fandom. Envisioned as a dark twist on the prophecy of the legendary Super Saiyan, it introduced the non-canon character of Broly, who is easily the most frustrating addition to the Dragon Ball franchise. On the one hand, he is a character who ties deeply into the lore of the series, which I love, and his fight against Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo simultaneously is still one of the most viscerally satisfying battles in Dragon Ball history. On the other hand, he is a character with no personality, an idiotic motivation (He hates Goku because Goku cried a lot when they were roommates in the same baby nursery. Riveting.), and his continued use as a marketing tool for terrible video games and two really bad sequel movies.

He also looked like this, which is just hideous.

Now, it is worth noting that Broly was never part of the official story of Dragon Ball. He was never a part of Akira Toriyama's original manga, nor was he added in the expansions or official prequels created by the anime staff in the 80s and 90s. Which I can imagine was a heartbreaking revelation for those with memories of swapping rumors about the mysterious Broly who was so powerful that he could challenge "4 Super Saiyan Fours at once" and "can't be killed, only wished away by the Dragon Balls" (both of these are actual things I heard on the playground as a kid) back in the days when the Internet was new and Dragon Ball Z was still young in the US. A time when one of the earliest introductions to the universe for many many people was a video game based on Dragon Ball GT (a sequel series that was wiped from canon from Super) that was released BEFORE the series aired on Toonami. Dragon Ball as a whole, and especially Broly, had a mythical quality to the wide-eyed weea-kids of the 2000s. Bringing him back for a new movie isn't the same as resurrecting Freeza back in 2015. Freeza is a big deal, but he was already canon. He's normal. But bringing back Broly, and fully integrating him and his story into the main canon, in a post Dragon Ball Super world? This is nothing short of monumental; it's the fandom equivalent of a Messianic rebirth! Never in a million years would I have predicted that Toriyama and the team at Toei Animation would want to take another shot at this character. With Broly being so divisive and hyped up in the fanbase, it just seemed like an insane idea that would only make everybody angry.

So, of course, that's exactly what they did. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released in December 2018 in Japan and is currently making the rounds in a rare theatrical release in the United States right now. Advertised as a grand return of Broly to the Dragon Ball canon and a re-imagining of the Saiyans' tragic history, this movie is making a huge splash among the community and, from what I can tell, is currently on pace to be the highest grossing anime film in the US ever. And I am shocked to say that I liked it...

For the most part.

I've been sitting here for hours trying to think of the best way to accurately explain how I feel about this movie without spoiling the experience for anybody who hasn't seen it for themselves yet, but, as I'm sure anyone who has read any of my previous posts can attest, I don't think I'm capable of giving a satisfying look at a story without talking about it in spoiler-filled depth. So, if you haven't seen the movie yet and just want a quick idea of my thoughts: this is the best animated Dragon Ball film to date, with one of the most incredible fights in franchise history and some great character moments (I actually kinda like Broly now), but there are some issues I have with the story, especially the beginning segments on Planet Vegeta, that hurt my overall enjoyment of the film. The English dub is fantastic, and the character animation just accentuates their personalities even more. Also, if you have a favorite Z fighter who isn't Goku or Vegeta, you might be disappointed. I mean, not even Gohan and Krillin make an appearance here.

So, consider this your spoiler warning. 

Alright, so if you're still here, I'm assuming that you have either already seen the movie or just don't mind spoilers. Just like with Bleachflix, I plan to go through the entire story of the movie, discussing each of the major plot points and my thoughts on them in as much detail as possible. Be warned, I'm about to be a stupid and petty fanboy.

We begin on Planet Vegeta, 41 years before the main events of the story. Dragon Ball's biggest waste of potential King Cold has arrived with a young Freeza and his entourage, including cameos from Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyu Force, in order to announce his retirement as Overlord of Space and to introduce his son and successor to King Vegeta. Which, first of all, begs the question: is Freeza really young or are his major subordinates just older than I thought? It's most likely the former, since it's unlikely that all of those henchmen would look exactly the same on both Vegeta and Namek if they were already major players in King Cold's army before he handed them off to Freeza, but I already have problems with this extended backstory, because around 20 years pass between the destruction of Planet Vegeta and the battle on Namek. So, either the Ginyu Force are actually a bunch of 60 year old men that Vegeta is supposedly terrified of, or Freeza blew up Planet Vegeta when he was like 12 years old. And both of those scenarios are just ludicrous to think about.

Anyway, Freeza has a great moment that establishes how much of a tyrant he is, where he makes a big show of giving the Saiyans a demonstration of his "new" Scouter technology. Upon attaching the Scouter to his eye, Freeza notices Saiyan snipers aimed at him and his father and casually murders the lot of them. It's not a big moment in the grand scheme of things, but it expands the lore and is a chilling character moment for Freeza, who is a major character in this movie. This movie is full of great little moments like this, and it would be dishonest for me to focus only on my negative feelings about the movie as a whole. Wow, two paragraphs for just the opening scene, huh? If I stay this much in depth as I go through this, we'll be here forever. Guess I'd better pick up the pace, huh?

It is a really good scene, though.

So, after having been fully humiliated by the boy king Joffr--I mean Freeza, King Vegeta decides to blow off some steam and visits his son in a nursery reserved for the children of elite Saiyans like himself. But, much to his anger, a mid-tier whelp known as Broly was placed in a pod at this nursery by the doctors because of his incredibly high latent power level, one that rivals and may even exceed the prince Vegeta himself. Terrified by the prospect of a rampaging Great Ape that is impossible to control (and slightly insulted by the idea that a random brat could be more powerful than his son), King Vegeta decides to exile Broly to a desolate planet with no chance of survival and passing it off as a typical mission where infant Saiyans are sent to primitive planets to exterminate all indigenous life and prepare it for sale. Broly's father Paragus tries to formally protest this, but the deed was already done before Paragus even opened his mouth.

Naturally, Paragus isn't thrilled with the idea of his son being all but executed on the grounds of what may happen, so he decides to take action. He takes a pilot named Beets hostage and steals a spaceship, and the two of them blast off after Broly. Beets is already unhappy with King Vegeta's rule, and promises to help Paragus in his rescue efforts and subsequent revenge campaign. The two of them crash land on the hostile world (which is so messed up that it's later implied that there isn't even any fresh water here) and find a young Broly living in a cave, eating the monsters that lived there. But even though Paragus is prepared to grab Broly and get out of there, the ship Broly was shipped out on is too small for more than one passenger, and Paragus's ship was damaged in the landing. When Beets tells Paragus that the ship cannot be repaired, Paragus shoots Beets dead, saying that food needs to be preserved.

And then, weirdly enough, in a story about Broly, we shift focus back to Planet Vegeta, a few years later. Freeza has ordered all available Saiyans to assemble on their homeworld for an important briefing. Bardock of all people becomes our viewpoint character, and he finds the situation suspicious. Freeza and the Saiyans, he reasons, don't get along at all, and it's fairly common knowledge that the only reason that the Saiyans haven't revolted against him already is because Freeza's power is too great for them to handle, either individually or as a group (and working together in battle is antithetical to traditional Saiyan values). But to a tyrant like Freeza, the story of the Legendary Super Saiyan, while commonly dismissed by the Saiyans as a whole, will always be a source of doubt. While it is incredibly likely that this wouldn't be an issue for him, if the impossible does happen and a Super Saiyan were to appear, then the "monkeys" would have a symbol to rally around and his empire could be in peril. Even though his fellow Saiyans reject the idea that Freeza's orders may be a trap, Bardock can't let the idea go and convinces his wife Gine (in her first animated appearance, no less) to secretly blast baby Goku to Earth just in case (Raditz was already off world on a mission with Vegeta and Nappa, and wasn't able to return to Planet Vegeta in time for the new orders anyway).

I'm about to hate on this plot point, so let me just say that I liked this shot quite a bit.

I hate Bardock's story here so much. On the surface, there isn't anything wrong with it as a whole. Bardock's deductions are logically sound, and it makes more sense for him to realize that Freeza is up to something this way than the previous explanation for his suspicions about him. It's also nice to see Gine actually in animated form and not in a crappy manga prequel published decades after the original run of Dragon Ball Z. But Bardock's tragic struggle against Freeza right before the destruction of Planet Vegeta was already captured beautifully way back in the anime-original TV special "Bardock: The Father of Goku", which released back in 1990. And his story and character has been completely changed.

In the special, Bardock is an unrepentant murderer who is accidentally given a psychic vision of Freeza destroying the planet. Worried for his life, Bardock tries to rally the Saiyans against Freeza, but nobody believes his warnings and his squad was already executed by Dodoria earlier. Frustrated and scared, Bardock mounts a desperate last stand against the Freeza Force, only to be the first casualty to Freeza's Death Ball. And his dying moments are the first time he ever gave his son a second thought, and only because he saw a vision of Goku fighting Freeza on Namek, and died with a sense of vindication that at least his race will be avenged one day. Goku only survived the blast because he had just been sent off as a baby to murder all life on Earth.

One of my favorite aspects of Dragon Ball is how Goku's origin is a corrupted version of Superman's story. Like Superman, Goku is the protector of Earth and the last of an alien race from a doomed planet that only survived thanks to being launched off the planet as a baby. The twist, though, is that Goku was sent on a mission to commit genocide, and it was only due to a series of lucky breaks that he became the hero of the planet that he was sent to raze in the first place. And Bardock's original special only strengthened this conceit. The Saiyans might be the protectors of Earth now, but they are, historically, a barbaric race of bloodthirsty space pirates. It's interesting and nuanced and profound and is one of my first counterarguments to the notion that Dragon Ball is nothing but mindless violence.

So, why did you have to go and ruin that, Toriyama? This new Bardock story (yes, I'm aware of Dragon Ball Minus, but this movie is the new standard of canon, so it doesn't matter) just makes him a less interesting and memorable character. Instead of being a unique take on the Superman story cliche, Goku's origin is now just "Superman with monkey-people". I don't want to complain too much about this since there's still an hour of movie to go over, but this is easily my biggest problem with the movie and I wanted to explain why. And since this is essentially just an altered crash course on relevant backstory for the sake of context, the fact that I enjoy the main story for the most part and that this is my biggest complaint should tell you I feel good about it overall.

Also, little Vegeta shows up for like a minute! So, that's neat.

So, after this 30 minute extended prologue, we finally skip ahead to the present, where Goku and Vegeta are having a friendly sparring match over the ocean, while Bulma, Whis, Beerus, and baby Bra (I refuse to call her Bulla cause I get her mixed up with her mother that way) are hanging out at the beach house on Bulma's nearby private island. This sparring match is brief, but it is already animated and choreographed better than the marquis battles of the previous "Super-era" movies Battle of Gods and Ressurection F, and this is only a warmup of things to go. Whenever the story is dropped and the movie is just an extended fight scene, the quality shoots up through the roof. It's clear that even though Toriyama and Toei were planning to make this movie a spectacle first and a story second, and their effort really shows. My only complaint about this setup, and it's not a huge complaint in the grand scheme of things, is that it seems unlikely that Bulma would have a private island for Goku and Vegeta to spar in peace and not invite any of her friends and family to just hang out and watch them go at it. I would have loved to see Chi-Chi sunbathing next to Bulma while baby Pan plays with Bra and Krillin fires up a grill while Beerus hounds him asking how much longer he has to wait for a hamburger. 

Anyway, Bulma gets a call from Trunks back at Capsule Corp (why would Bulma leave a 10 year old home alone at a multi-billion dollar corporation's research and development lab unsupervised, let alone with Goten and the Pilaf gang there?) who tells her that someone has broken into the lab and stole not only the Dragon Radar, but also the 6 Dragon Balls she had already collected. When reviewing the security footage, our heroes deduce that Freeza had sent his weakest soldiers (so as to not be detected by the Z Fighters) to steal the Dragon Balls under Bulma's nose. Fearful that Freeza would wish for immortality (the actual reason Freeza wants the Dragon Balls is to just be taller, since he has outgrown his desire for immortality after the Tournament of Power. that is amazing.) and try to get revenge and destroy the Earth, Goku and Vegeta go to the Arctic to try to intercept the Freeza Force before the Dragon Balls can be gathered, with Bulma and Whis in tow (Beerus is left to babysit Bra in one of the funniest Dragon Ball gags I've ever seen).

Meanwhile, two new characters named Cheelai and Lemo have been sent out to recruit new fighters to replace the fallen members of the Freeza Force after Freeza executed half of them to prove a point. As luck and the script would have it, these two lovable rogues happen upon Planet Vampa, where Paragus and Broly had been living for the last four decades. Paragus is extremely relieved to see the Freeza Force, who he remembers as his allies, and upon witnessing Broly's incredible power, Cheelai and Lemo are excited at the prospect of a huge bounty for recruiting them. During the ride back to Freeza's ship (in orbit over Earth, waiting for news on the Dragon Balls), Broly eats food that isn't dead bug-monster (or Beets, presumably) for the first time in his life (remember, he's like 40) and starts to bond with his rescuers.

Upon arrival at Freeza's ship, Paragus learns about the death of Planet Vegeta, which he shrugs off as no big loss, and announces his intent to get revenge on Vegeta for the crimes of his father the King. Freeza's amused and agrees to help arrange a confrontation, seeing Broly as a potential weapon against Goku, and it is revealed that Paragus keeps Broly under control with a remote control shock collar. Disgusted by such horrific abuse, Cheelai pickpockets the remote for the shock collar and destroys it. Broly then tells her and Lemo the story of how his only friend before all of this was a monster he played with before Paragus shot off the monster's ear and turned it against Broly, and now Broly keeps the severed ear as a waist cloth, to remind him of the only companionship he ever had.

These scenes with Broly and Cheelai (and Lemo, I guess, but he's more of a bit character) are the heart of this story, and they are so good. Broly is a quiet, scared little boy in a man's body, and his visual reaction to even seeing Paragus reach for his pocket is chilling. And when Cheelai calls Paragus out for his abuse, he has a great response: "Don't assume to know what we've been through." Yeah, Paragus's actions were unforgivable by our sensibilities, but they were stranded on a planet where everything wanted to kill them and Broly regularly lost control of his faculties and went berserk, unable to differentiate between friend and foe. If not for the shock collar (which I believe Bardock rigged up from the wreckage from his ship), they both probably would have died at this point. Less forgivable is how Paragus fails to see Broly as anything more than a weapon, consumed by his hatred of King Vegeta, but that hatred was probably the only thing keeping him from falling into despair, and I don't think Broly would have survived 40 years on his own. Broly clearly believes that, judging by his dialogue constantly defending Paragus whenever Cheelai and Lemo badmouth his dad. And this dynamic is the definition of tragedy: detestable, unavoidable due to the circumstances surrounding these characters, and yet still unique to these characters because of their own personalities and actions. For the first time in history, Broly and Paragus are actual characters with motivation and depth, and I really like the direction Toriyama took them in.

As an aside, any time old Paragus was on screen, all I could think of was a Saiyan Santa Claus. Is that weird?

Moving right along, Goku and Vegeta confront Freeza, who sends the Dragon Balls to his ship for safekeeping with Cheelai and Lemo and orders Broly to attack the Saiyans. And then, the setup is complete and what is essentially an hour long fight scene begins.

Like all great fight scenes, this battle is a push and pull between all parties involved, where the advantage shifts at any given moment. Broly attacks Vegeta first, who toys with him in his base form for a while, calling Broly a "warm-up" before the presumed main event: a rematch with Freeza. But, as Broly is still essentially the ultimate Saiyan (he's never name-dropped as the Legendary Super Saiyan, probably because that moniker is no longer impressive in this age of Super Saiyan Gods), Broly learns quickly and adapts to fighting a thinking being other than his father for the first time. As Vegeta is forced to take the fight seriously, he transforms first to Super Saiyan and then to Super Saiyan God, at which point Broly, who was unaware that Super Saiyans existed, is overwhelmed and backed into a corner. 

At this point, Paragus is ready to call the operation a failure, which is weird considering how hellbent he was on revenge but I guess seeing just how powerful Vegeta is triggered his self-preservation instincts, and tries to order Broly to retreat. But Broly instead goes berserk, which I think is partially out of fear of reprisal from his father for failing in what he was told is essentially his life's purpose, and goes into a berserk rage. Thanks to his unique power, Broly is able to incorporate the strength increase of the Great Ape transformation without ever transforming, though this is at the cost of his ability to reason and tell friend from foe. Broly quickly turns the tables on Vegeta and has the Saiyan Prince at his mercy, but then Goku tags in and becomes the focus of Broly's rage.

At the risk of repeating myself, there are so many great shots in this movie.

Goku's fighting style seems to have been altered a bit for this movie. Granted, I haven't finished Dragon Ball Super the TV series yet, I don't remember the last time I saw adult Goku incorporate this much finesse into his fighting style. I'm used to Goku just brute forcing and Kamehameha-ing his way through all his obstacles in a post-King Piccolo era that seeing him adopt actual martial arts stances and use grappling techniques against Broly of all people was a a real treat. Goku holds his own against Broly and manages to trap him in a stunning technique, whereupon he tries to talk Broly down, reasoning that Broly shouldn't be forced to fight if he doesn't want to.

This decision may come as a surprise to some, considering that there is nothing Goku likes more than a good fight. However, I think that this is a brilliant character moment for him. See, Goku may not be the smartest guy around, but he is very good at understanding people, especially if he is fighting somebody. And while Goku likes fighting, he also wants people to be happy, so it makes sense that he would give Broly a chance to do what he wants to do for a change. Unfortunately, Broly's mind is too far gone, and he uses his incredible adaptability to turn Goku's stunning technique against him. Realizing that there is nothing more he could do for Broly, Goku turns Super Saiyan Blue and starts pushing Broly back. And that's when Freeza decides to change everything.

Those that have been paying attention will remember that Broly still hasn't unlocked his Super Saiyan form at this point. Those that haven't been paying attention...well, pay attention, alright? Anyway, Freeza, being the reason that we had the very first Super Saiyan transformation way back on Namek, decides to recreate the same conditions that led Goku to unlocking the form. So, he kills Paragus and then makes a big show of saying that a stray energy blast from the fight is what actually killed him. And just like Goku way back when, Broly gets even angrier and unlocks the Super Saiyan form. 

As one can imagine, this bodes poorly for Goku, so he grabs Vegeta and plans to make a temporary tactical retreat. Luckily, the blind rage that empowered Broly just meant that he needed a new target for his anger. So, Goku and Vegeta lead Broly on a chase right past Freeza right before using Instant Transmission to teleport away to a wasteland where Piccolo is waiting. So, now Broly is beating the stuffing out of Freeza while Goku and Vegeta plan their next move. And though Vegeta resists at first, he is soon convinced of a new plan: the Fusion Dance.

This would have been such an amazing moment if it wasn't spoiled by the trailer. Not only is Broly finally being added to the canon, now we get Gogeta too? I really wish that Toei kept this secret, because not a single person in my theater reacted to it. Regardless though, after two failed attempts (which means that Broly was beating up Freeza for over an hour, which is really funny to think about), Gogeta is finally born. Upon returning to the battlefield, Gogeta finds Broly attacking Whis (who is really only toying with him, since he is Whis and all) and intervenes. 

And now, for the first time in almost in hour, we start cutting away from the action and focus back on Cheelai and Lemo. On Freeza's ship, they decide that Broly should not be forced to fight anymore. So, as Gogeta and Broly fight so hard that dimensions start shattering (which is too weird for me to even consider what the hell that is about), the two bounty hunters take one of Freeza's advisers hostage and order him, at gunpoint, to summon Shenron. Upon doing so, Cheelai makes her wish: for Broly to be sent back to Planet Vampa. After Broly is warped back to safety, Cheelai and Lemo fly off on their ship, and Gogeta prevents Freeza from blasting the ship out of the sky. Freeza, having matured well enough in the last few movies to know when to call it quits, shrugs his shoulders and leaves Earth with his army. And Gogeta shows off his irresponsibility by letting him go, whereupon Freeza just continues to be a tyrant elsewhere in the galaxy.

Seriously, what the hell, man?

A few weeks later, Broly, Cheelai, and Lemo have started settling in back on Planet Vampa, and Broly's new friends are having trouble adjusting to life on the inhospitable hellhole. Suddenly, Goku arrives, having used Instant Transmission to come visit. Though they think he's there for a fight, Goku assures the trio that he is only there for a visit and to drop off some capsules to make life easier. After providing them with a house, a refrigerator full of food, and a few beds, Goku explains that he had so much fun fighting against an opponent as strong as Broly that he wants to make sure that Broly would survive so that they could have a rematch some day. And then the movie ends with Goku actually providing his name to the trio, though he tells Broly: "Call me Kakarot," which is a nice little nod to the original Broly films.

And that's the movie! Overall, I liked it quite a bit, though I would say that it's my least favorite of the modern "Super era" films thus far. The changes to Broly's character and backstory are amazing, and I'm so glad to have a new set of canon characters that I care about that may potentially return in future adventures. While I do wish that there was a little less emphasis on the title fight (along with some cutaways to break up the action and give me a chance to breathe), I can't deny that it is one of the best looking and best choreographed fights of Dragon Ball's illustrious history. And while I'm not a huge fan of some of the changes to the lore or the fact that some key characters like Gohan and Krillin are absent, what we do have is pretty darn good overall, and I highly encourage every Dragon Ball fan (and any anime fan in general) to check this movie out. A plot synopsis does not do the experience justice.

Also, I had nowhere else to put this picture, but I really like their winter outfits.